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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

alter.

To change the form or structure of.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈɒl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔːl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔl.təɹ/General-American/ˈɑl.təɹ/cot-caught-merger
  1. To change the form or structure of.

    ambitransitive
  2. To become different.

    intransitive
  3. To tailor clothes to make them fit.

    transitive
  4. To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal).

    transitive
  5. To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Old French alterer (French altérer), from Medieval Latin alterāre (“to make other”), from Latin alter (“the other”), from al- (seen in alius (“other”), alienus (“of another”), etc.; see alias, alien, etc.) + compar. suffix -ter.

noun/ˈɒl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔːl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔl.təɹ/General-American/ˈɑl.təɹ/cot-caught-merger
  1. One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person with dissociative identity disorder or another form of multiplicity.

Where this word comes from

Probably from alter ego.

noun/ˈɒl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔːl.tə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔl.təɹ/General-American/ˈɑl.təɹ/cot-caught-merger
  1. Misspelling of altar.

    alt-of · misspelling
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.